Sunday, May 10, 2009

A Treasure Hunt

For the past 6 years we've been blissfully unaware of certain things about living in the country. One of them was the septic system. We knew not to put anything down the pipes that we hadn't eaten first, and not to plant trees or other deep rooted plants on the leach field. Long time Maine residents also gave us good advice about the tank and leach field and cautioned we should know where the cleanout was.

Delaying way too long, this spring we finally undertook the task of finding the septic tank and its cleanout access. After a bit of research through our house construction photos, I came to the realization that five years ago, I had planted a thread leaf cypress right over the tank! So, the first order of business was to dig up the shrub and transplant it elsewhere.

After we found the cleanout access, we carefully marked it so it could easily be found if we needed the septic cleaned.

The cypress was transplanted to the spot in front of the old wheelbarrow planter and trimmed. I'll keep it well watered and hope for the best.

On Friday, we noticed that our local hardware store had cedar outdoor twin seats on sale, so we hurried out to get one. They were selling like hotcakes and we managed to get one of the last ones. We put it in the garage on top of a tarp so I could stain it before it went out into the yard.


It looked pretty good after I finished........

but it looked even better in the garden!

Up in the garage loft, things are coming right along.....

the cucumbers and squashes are beginning to sprout......


and the geraniums are begging to be let out, however, up here, we still have a chance of frost til the end of the month, so they'll just have to cool their jets for a while longer.

The boys are very happy to see the warmer weather coming. Now they can watch the squirrels and chipmunks up close and personal through the screen door.

Life is Good and warming up nicely,

Hugs, Giddy

6 comments:

WiseAcre said...

OOPS. The first time is always the hardest. While the previous owner told us where our tank was it still took some digging to locate the clean-out. Now I have mine marked too.

I'm waiting for my friend to start making Cedar rustic chairs again. I keep telling him to retire so I can get some. He keeps telling me to make my own.

glbuzz said...

You were lucky to find it so quickly. Ours is not in a good place to mark it easily so we have a little map that we can refer to. All we have to do is find the map every five years or so. :-) Your chair looks great!

Elenka said...

'IF' you need to pump the tank!!??
5 years!?
You must have a gigantic tank. We have to pump ours every 2-3 years and we are 3 people living here.
We had a new one put in about 8 years ago, so I know it's not too small. i'll have to look it up to find how big it is.....
Memorial Day....time to plant.....can't wait!

Linda said...

Hope that cypress survives the transplant. Those are lovely chairs for the garden. We have 2 separate ones that we have enjoyed for many years.

Anonymous said...

Wow, those geraniums look great! How did you do that? My look anemic.

Avis said...

That twin seat is really nice and your geraniums are awesome. I had a geranium once that grew as big as a shrub! I have to get one this year. Cheers!